Revival of traditional arts brings Al-Dayer to life

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul All Share Index increased on Monday, gaining 2.58 points, or 0.02 percent, to close at 12,471.72.        

The total trading turnover of the benchmark index was SR5.93 billion ($1.58 billion), as 72 stocks advanced, while 159 retreated.             

The MSCI Tadawul Index also increased by 0.68 points, or 0.04 percent, to close at 1,550.94.         

The Kingdom’s parallel market, Nomu, gained 12.11 points, or 0.04 percent, to close at 31,426.76. This comes as 37 stocks advanced while 52 retreated.          

Al-Babtain Power and Telecommunication Co. was the best-performing stock of the day, with its share price surging by 4.44 percent to SR47.        

Other top performers included East Pipes Integrated Co. for Industry, which saw its share price rise by 3.75 percent to SR160.60, and Makkah Construction and Development Co., which saw a 3.52 percent increase to SR111.80.        

Al Majed Oud Co. rose 3.32 percent to SR168, while Allied Cooperative Insurance Group gained 3.26 percent to SR17.76.    

Al Yamamah Steel Industries Co. saw the steepest decline of the day, with its share price easing 6.32 percent to close at SR36.30.    

Saudi Fisheries Co. fell 3.40 percent to SR53.90, while Leejam Sports Co. dropped 4.84 percent to SR169.20.    

Thimar Development Holding Co. also faced a loss with its share price dipping 2.75 percent to SR56.50, while Shatirah House Restaurant Co. saw a 3.12 percent to settle at SR22.94.     

On the announcements front, Leejam Sports Co. reported a 13 percent year-on-year growth in revenue for the financial year 2024, reaching SR1.50 billion. Net profit also surged by 28 percent, amounting to SR456 million compared to SR356 million in 2023.   

The increase in revenue was driven by a 10 percent rise in subscription and membership revenue and a 31 percent increase in income from paid programs, including personal training and swimming.   

The company’s revenue growth trailed historic trends partly due to changes in the subscription and brand mix.    

Leejam also recorded notable one-off gains in 2024, including SR92 million from the sale of three land plots in Riyadh and SR18 million from favorable rent negotiations related to centers in Ras Al-Khaimah, UAE.  

Despite the recorded gains, Leejam was among TASI’s worst performers.  

Saudi Electricity Co. has announced plans to hold meetings with fixed-income investors starting Feb. 10 regarding a potential issuance of US dollar-denominated sukuk under its international sukuk program.  

The issuance will be conducted through a special-purpose vehicle and offered to eligible investors in Saudi Arabia and internationally, subject to market conditions.   

The sukuk will be senior unsecured and issued in compliance with relevant regulatory approvals and laws.  

SEC has appointed a consortium of global and regional financial institutions, including HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, BNP Paribas, and others, as joint lead managers for the potential offer.   

The proceeds from the issuance will be used to support SEC’s general corporate purposes, including capital expenditures, and to fund projects aligned with its Green Sukuk Framework.  

The final terms, including the value of the offer, will be determined based on market conditions and SEC’s requirements.  

SEC’s share price saw a slight 0.23 percent increase on Monday to reach SR17.30.

THE HAGUE: Judges at the International Criminal Court have officially asked Italy on Monday to explain why the country released a Libyan man suspected of torture, murder and rape rather than sending him to The Hague.
Italian police arrested Ossama Anjiem, also known as Ossama Al-Masri, last month but rather than extraditing him to the Netherlands, where the ICC is based, sent him back to Libya aboard an Italian military aircraft.
“The matter of state’s non-compliance with a request of cooperation for arrest and surrender by the court is before the competent chamber,” the court’s spokesperson Fadi El-Abdallah said in a statement.
Addressing parliament last week, Italian Justice Minister Carlo Nordio defended the decision to send Al-Masri home, claiming the ICC had issued a contradictory and flawed arrest warrant. The court, he said, “realized that an immense mess was made,” he told lawmakers.
Al-Masri was arrested in Turin on the ICC warrant on Jan. 19, the day after he arrived in the country from Germany to watch a soccer match. The Italian government has said Rome’s court of appeals ordered him released on Jan. 21 because of a technical problem in the way that the ICC warrant was transmitted, having initially bypassed the Italian justice ministry.
The ICC said it does not comment on national judicial proceedings.
Al-Masri’s arrest had posed a dilemma for Italy because it has close ties to the internationally recognized government in Tripoli as well as energy interests in the country.
According to the arrest warrant, Al-Masri heads the Tripoli branch of the Reform and Rehabilitation Institution, a notorious network of detention centers run by the government-backed Special Defense Force, which acts as a military police unit combating high-profile crimes including kidnappings, murders as well as illegal migration.
Like many other militias in western Libya, the SDF has been implicated in atrocities in the civil war that followed the overthrow and killing of the Libyan president Muammar Qaddafi in 2011.
Additionally, any trial in The Hague of Al-Masri could bring unwanted attention to Italy’s migration policies and its support of the Libyan coast guard, which it has financed to prevent migrants from leaving.
In October, the court unsealed arrest warrants for six men allegedly linked to a brutal Libyan militia blamed for multiple killings and other crimes in a strategically important western town where mass graves were discovered in 2020.